Science Fiction Favorites

At first, I thought Asimov's voice was a horrible fit for an audiobook. "Now I know why he's an author, not an actor!" However, as I kept listening, the more personal and real connection he had to his work came through, and the less-than-stellar acting was overshadowed by the warmth and feeling of getting to know a bit of Asimov.

By the end of the last story, "The Ugliest Little Boy" (if I remember the title correctly), both the listener and Asimov are completely drawn into the narrative, and, frankly, it was a tear-jerker. I was glad I had stopped for gas when I hit the end of it, because it would have been hard to pay attention to the road and the emotion of the story and the narration.

Even if you're not a science fiction afficionado, these stories transcend genre boundaries and make great listening.

People will be certainly reading Asimov's stories in print hundreds of years from now. His Foundation books are perhaps the best science fiction ever written. When I chose this title I was hoping only for a few gems and expected to hear the stories narrated by a professional actor. To actually hear Asimov's voice telling his own stories was, for me, wonderful. Sure he sounds a little funny - like the way he pronounces robot as "row-bit" - but to me there was something fantastic about hearing his inflections and his comments as he read his own stories. Some of the stories were wonderful and others were merely clever. All were worth listening to. Compared to the other audio books I have listened, this one is one of the very best.

All fans must listen for the masters voice

CONTENTS:
Introduction
I Just Make Them Up See
Someday
The Feeling of Power
Living Space
Satisfaction Guaranteed
The Last Question
Jokester
The Immortal Bard
Spell My Name With an "S"
The Ugly Little Boy

It is rather amazing (to me at least) how great these stories are. I mean, granted that his ideas about the Multivac, a computer that is miles long and requires specialist to interpret the results, is a long way from the way things actually turned out, but usually the kernel of the idea that he was playing with in a story has merit worth of examination. I especially liked the story where everyone forgot how to perform arithmetic. (After hearing this one, I computed the tip for a meal out by hand that evening, instead of pulling out the calculator in my cell phone, just to honor Dr A.)

Of course, Asimov did not sound anything like I expected, but he did well in the narration and his comments before and after really helped me understand why he wrote a story in the first place.

I had never heard of most of these stories, so they were off the usual beaten Asimov path. I especially liked the last one, "The Ugliest Boy in the World". The purpose of this story was less interested in examining some scientific principle and more of a character piece. (And it may be the best thing that he has ever written.)

I will probably never listen a second time to most of the books that I download from Audible, but that will not be the faith of this one.

This collection features several of Isaac Asimov's best-loved short stories along with some additional commentary by the author. The reading is crisp and sound quality is excellent.
The high points of the collection have to be "Spell My Name With An S" and "The Ugly Little Boy"; the stories clearly illustrate the author's humour and sensitivity. In particular, the conclusion of "The Ugly Little Boy" is unique in Science Fiction by being a commentary on Humanity and Motherhood; you can clearly hear the author moved to tears while reading it.

Asimov's personality

Ray Bradbury's "Fantastic tales of Ray Bradbury" Here to the man and his coments about his wrightings.

the feal for the author as a person.

yes

adding the man and the story gives a better feeling for the hole.

I think this is just great--to be able to hear the works spoken aloud by the author himself. I'd never heard his voice before, and had no idea what to expect--it was a wonderful surprise. I think we're lucky to have this, since Dr. Asimov has been gone for too many years now, unfortunately. Such a loving-sounding man, somehow. You could somehow almost hear the twinkle in his eye. You can tell how much his stories mean to him, and his great pride in them is well-deserved, of course.

At any rate, for me it was great to hear the author speak aloud his stories as he meant them to be heard.

And the stories themselves were great, too. I would suggest anybody who is a fan of Isaac Asimov get this just to hear him speak--it's wonderful.

...do it.

I'm writing a review and others may not agree but here it goes. The title is not bad in and of itself. They are older stories from a time before the word Sci-Fi was ever commonplace. Where it falls drastically short is in the reading by Isaac Asimov. I love his work but he should have really never been recorded. His delivery was very flat and forced and I had a hard time listening to him. I was cringing as he read his own stories (like a daffy uncle telling you a second hand story poorly). It came across as someone who does not do well recording himself for others. When he is introducing the stories he comes off wonderful and relaxed about where he got his inspiration and so forth but the minute he starts reading I have a terrible time continuing with it.

I know that I'm being harsh here but there are many wonderful people out there who do a great job in voice acting and sometimes it's better left to the professionals. Overall I wish I had not bought this one now that I've heard it and I will be more leary of who is reading before buying.

I remember reading these short stories many years ago. I was a great delight to have the author, himself read the stories. It was an even bigger thrill when he shared his insight in between stories. THIS WAS AWESOME. I will probably listen to it again.

As said in the title, the stories in this book are top notch, but the author's voice actually takes AWAY from the listening experience. He has a very nasally voice and I think the text would have been much better treated had they hired an actual actor to read the content. Apart from that, it is very hard to tell where one story starts and the next one begins, as there is no announcement or pause to let you know that any of the stories have ended.
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7.9 / 10